Abstract

Ashwagandha is an important herb used in Indian system of traditional home medicine, Ayurveda. Alcoholic extract (i-Extract) from its leaves and its component, Withanone, were previously shown to possess anticancer activity. In the present study, we developed a combination of Withanone and Withaferin A, major withanolides in the i-Extract, that retained the selective cancer cell killing activity, and found that it also has significant anti-migration, -invasion and -angiogenic activities, both in in vitro and in vivo assays. Using bioinformatics and biochemical approaches, we demonstrate that these phytochemicals caused downregulation of migration-promoting proteins: hnRNP-K, VEGF and metalloproteases, and hence are candidate natural drugs for metastatic cancer therapy.